New Orleans father, 21, booked with murder of 2-month-old girl

A 2-month-old Gert Town girl was fatally beaten by her father on Monday, New Orleans police said. It was the second time in a little more than a week that a baby girl in the city met a violent death at the hands of a caretaker.

Micah Short, 21, of the 3300 block of Fern Street was booked with first-degree murder Tuesday, police said. When he and his wife took 2-month-old Makayla to the hospital, Short claimed she had hit her head on a crib after he tripped over a box, according to police.

But he later confessed to beating the baby because she wouldn't stop crying. The infant died after several attempts to resuscitate her at the hospital, police said. The Orleans Parish coroner's office found that the baby died of blunt force trauma to the head.

The baby's death saddened neighbors.

A woman who saw the mother pushing Makalia in a stroller the night before the child died said she can't understand why anyone would want to harm a baby because it is crying.

"They should have gave that baby to me," she said. "I would have taken care of it."

Neighbors said Short and the child's mother kept a low profile. Short would ride his bicycle to work, said a woman who lived in the neighborhood for 30 years. He would say hello and smile, neighbors said, but rarely stop to talk.

NOPDMicah Short

"He lived in the gray house (on Fern Street) first -- for three or four years," said a man who lives in Gert Town. "She (his wife) moved in with him later."

"A lot of people did not even know they were living there; that's how quiet they were," said a woman who has lived in the neighborhood for 30 years.

Officer Garry Flot, a New Orleans Police spokesman, said Short was already in jail when an autopsy revealed Tuesday that the baby's death was a homicide. The first-degree murder charge was added to the domestic-abuse charge he was initially booked on, Flot said.

On Monday, the wife told police that Short had battered her in March, Flot said. He was booked that day with the domestic abuse of his wife and jailed, Flot said. Short also was booked Monday with second-degree cruelty in connection with the death of his baby before the autopsy report was completed and the charges were upgraded.

Just over a week earlier, on April 29, an eastern New Orleans woman, Angela Bernard, allegedly dropped tiny RyanJae Mitchell in the sink after the 3-month-old would not stop crying.

Bernard, who was taking care of the child in her home in the 4600 block of Flake Avenue, then repeatedly hit RyanJae, according to police, lacerating her liver, breaking her ribs and causing widespread bruising to her head, face and chest. Bernard, like Short, was booked with first-degree murder.